If you asked me what category to file this song under, I’m not sure I would know where to pigeonhole it. That’s probably what made it such a huge hit, topping charts all over the world and turning Billy Swan into a one-hit wonder in early 1975.

Whatever genre it is, I don’t know if I would have come up with country (and/or ‘country-and-western’) as my first guess; it doesn’t instantly scream of Nashville hoedowns. The AllMusic site calls it ‘neo-rockabilly’ but that doesn’t take account of the distinctive Farfisa organ and the descending guitar solo – nor the party-style handclaps and whistles at the end.

But who cares? Swan’s pedigree takes in the homes of country music and the blues: a child prodigy on the drums, piano and guitar, he had written a hit single for Clyde McPhatter – Lover Please – as early as 1962 before moving to Memphis to work with Bill Black, bass player on Elvis’s early Sun Sessions. That didn’t work out so well when Black died in 1965, so Swan moved to Nashville.

At first he worked as a janitor at Columbia Studios to support himself while he wrote songs, eventually handing the job over to another wannabe songwriter, Kris Kristofferson. He soon found success, having his songs recorded by stars including Waylon Jennings and Conway Twitty. He moved on to producing Tony Joe White’s swamp pop classic Polk Salad Annie (later a hit for Elvis) and played bass with Kris Kristofferson, before signing a solo deal.

I Can Help, a hard-to-categorise fusion of rockabilly and country that he tossed off in 20 minutes while recording his debut album in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, heavily featured the sound of that Farfisa organ, borrowed from one of Elvis’s sidemen, and topped charts in America and other countries, reaching no.6 in the UK.

This here is the full album version, which comes complete with that party-style finale – and a false ending.